Sexual Violence against Women in Armed Conflicts: Standard Responses and New Ideas

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estelle Zinsstag
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Political Response ◽  
New Ideas

This article aims to assess ways in which different justice schemes may operate together for an improved legal and political response to victims of sexual crimes in the aftermath of armed conflicts. The article will briefly present the problem of sexual violence against women in armed conflict. It will then consider the evolution of criminal justice in regard to this crime, the results of recent attempts to implement truth and reconciliation processes, as well as briefly assess reparation schemes. Finally it will suggest a series of measures for coordinating the various schemes of justice in a way that guarantees women's rights in the aftermath of a conflict.

The Response to Violence against Women in Liberia

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Peace A. Medie
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Women's Organizations ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government ◽  
Women’S Organizations

Chapter 4 covers how the government and women’s organizations in Liberia responded to violence against women. It explains that prior to the conflict, violence against women was largely absent from the agenda of governments and women’s organizations, despite their involvement in international advocacy around this issue. Both domestic and international pressure on governments was low during this period and specialized mechanisms to address VAW were non-existent in the criminal justice sector. The chapter describes how the 14-year conflict changed this and generated strong international and domestic pressures on post-conflict governments to strengthen the criminal justice sector response to violence against women, particularly sexual violence, and to establish specialized criminal justice sector mechanisms.

Can We Be Friends? Offering an Amicus Curiae Brief on Sexual Violence to the EAC

2020 ◽  
pp. 134-141
Author(s):  
Kim Thuy Seelinger ◽  
Naomi Fenwick ◽  
Khaled Alrabe
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Amicus Curiae ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Life Sentence ◽  
Game Changer

This chapter details the preparation and submission of the amicus curiae brief on sexual violence to the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC). The amicus curiae brief offered by over a dozen experts on the prosecution of sexual violence under international law may have been a game changer for the Hissène Habré trial, both in terms of its relevance as a mechanism of international criminal justice, as well as in highlighting the EAC's power to address crimes of sexual violence despite their omission from original charges. Among other international crimes, Habré had been convicted of rape and sexual slavery as a crime against humanity and as a form of torture. The affirmation of Habré's life sentence for massive sexual violence committed by his Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS) agents was hailed as a tremendous victory for international criminal justice and the rights of sexual violence survivors. However, the conviction for sexual crimes was not complete and its path was not linear.

Sexual Violence against Men and International Law – Criminalising the Unmentionable

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solange Mouthaan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Community ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
The World ◽  
Gender Based

This article will discuss the manner in which international law deals with crimes of sexual violence committed against men during armed conflict. To date sexual violence against men has received little attention from the international community; instead its focus is almost exclusively on women, yet in armed conflicts across the world, sexual violence is also perpetrated against men. The example of torture demonstrates the current weaknesses in the relevant provisions for acts of sexual violence generally, and acts of sexual violence committed against men specifically. I argue that international criminal tribunals should address sexual violence more broadly, including against men. However, rather than to adopt a piecemeal approach differentiating between acts of sexual violence suffered by men and women, the experiences of men of sexual violence in armed conflict should be used to contribute to understanding the broader issue of gender-based crimes, of which sexual violence forms part.

The ICRC's approach to sexual violence in armed conflict: In conversation with Peter Maurer

2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (894) ◽  
pp. 449-455
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Complex Nature

In 2014, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) undertook a four-year commitment to consolidating and expanding its efforts to address sexual violence in armed conflicts and other situations of violence. In this Q&A, ICRC President Peter Maurer reflects on the complex nature of sexual violence and on some of the specific challenges involved, including identifying victims and assessing and adequately responding to their needs. He emphasizes the need for a proactive, multidisciplinary approach comprised of assistance, protection and prevention efforts, and explains how the ICRC intends to step up its efforts to better respond to and prevent sexual violence in the coming years.

The Response to Violence against Women in Côte d’Ivoire

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
Peace A. Medie
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Cote D'ivoire ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
The Government

This chapter covers the state’s, the women’s movement’s, and international actors’ responses to rape and domestic violence before, during, and after the Ivoirian conflict. It explains that unlike Liberia, there was some government and civil society attention to violence against women before the outbreak of armed conflict in 2002. Pressure from the UN and other international actors also contributed to the introduction of initiatives within the security sector to address violence against women during the conflict, including a specialized mechanism within the police force. The chapter explains how the UN’s attention to sexual violence during the Ivoirian conflict increased after the second civil war and generated pressure on the government to create the gender desks.

scholarly journals Imageries of Self: Guilty Plea Statements in Sexual Violence Cases at the ICTY

2020 ◽  
pp. 105756772098265
Author(s):  
Anette Bringedal Houge
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Guilty Plea ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Court Proceedings

Focusing on the guilty plea statements in sex crimes cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this article investigates the ways that defendants re-present themselves, their agencies, and their offenses in response to the legal framework within which they talk. While their acts are at the core of international criminal justice (ICJ), defendants are more often spectators than participants when their guilt is negotiated and judged. They have for the most part also been absent in research on ICJ. As defendants’ voices are rarely heard during proceedings, their guilty plea statements produce rare access to war criminal’s staging of self and individual agency. At international criminal tribunals, defendants have wide audiences beyond the courtroom, and when they do speak, their stories potentially influence not only the court proceedings but also wider cultural and societal narratives about wartime agency and sexual violence. After identifying a guilty plea script, this article draws attention to a consistent and intriguing silencing of sexual crimes in the past and to how the defendants’ imageries of present and future selves align with the ICJ effect narratives about the individually disciplining and rehabilitative character of criminal justice and its general deterrent effects.

scholarly journals Me Too? The Invisible Older Victims of Sexual Violence

2020 ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Ruthy Lowenstein Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Elder Abuse ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Legal Research

A review of legal research on violence against women and elder abuse reveals a disturbing picture. There is hardly any American legal research examining sexual abuse of older women and its conceptualization in legal literature and treatment in the legal system. This Article attempts to fill the abovementioned gap and to bring the hidden issue of sexual violence against older women to light. Scholars writing on rape, violence against women, and elder abuse tend to analyze age and gendered sexual violence separately from each other, without accounting for their interplay. This Article proposes a conceptual framework of sexual abuse of older women that integrates age and gender in the analysis. To achieve this end, this Article examines 109 publicly available American cases involving sexual violence against women over the age of 60, between the years 2000 and 2018, which are based on a search of 1,308 American cases. Based on this new empirical database, this Article offers an opportunity for analyzing the social and legal “taboo” regarding sexual abuse of older women. Despite findings indicating that sexual abuse of older women (and older people in general) is a significant issue creating serious consequences for victims, the Article shows that legal actors, social workers, health professionals, family members, and society miss its signs. Sexual abuse of older women is being noticed and treated by the criminal justice system only when it reflects a “real rape” 1 scenario. The obstacles to effective prosecution and to full access to the criminal justice system are distinctive in the case of older victims because of the effect of age, the way age shapes the experience of older victims of sexual violence, the effects of sexual violence on the victims, and its interplay with gender. Although sexual violence against older women is a form of elder abuse, it should be viewed separately from other forms of elder abuse and should be understood as part of a wider context of gender-based violence. There is a need for a holistic approach to sexual violence of older women, which perceives the sexual violence as a unique phenomenon and provides older women with legal and social mechanisms that fit their needs and experience both as women and elderly people.

scholarly journals THE CRIMINALIZATION AND PROSECUTION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE OFFENCES AT NATIONAL LEVEL: THE NEED FOR LEGISLATIVE REFORM IN SOUTH SUDAN

Obiter ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Abrahams
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Justice System ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
National Level ◽  
Legislative Reform ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict

Sexual violence against women in South Sudan is rife amidst the ongoing internal armed conflict that erupted on 15 December 2013. As a new country emerging from civil wars spanning more than two decades, South Sudan has an enormous, yet unenviable task of reconstruction and development in all spheres. The justice system is no exception, and to this end it needs serious reform of its customary and statutory laws in order to ensure that it can effectively criminalize these crimes and prosecute offenders of sexual violence. This article reflects on whether South Sudan currently has the capacity to achieve this.

scholarly journals The Vulnerability of the Penis: Sexual Violence against Men in Conflict and Security Frames

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 778-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Male Victims ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
The Core

Sexual violence remains a persistent scourge of war. The use of sexual violence against men in armed conflict, however, remains underresearched and is often sidelined. As an explanation, this interdisciplinary article situates the issue of sexual violence against men within a new analytical framework. It does so through a focus on the core subtext which this violence reveals—the vulnerability of the penis. Highlighting critical disconnects between what the penis is and what it is constructed as being, it argues that the vulnerable penis destabilizes the edifice of phallocentric masculinity, and hence it has wider security implications. Conflict-related sexual violence has increasingly been securitized within the framework of human security. The concept of human security, however, is deeply gendered and often excludes male victims of sexual violence. This gendering, in turn, reflects a broader gendered relationship between sexual violence and security. Sexual violence against women manifests and reaffirms their long-recognized vulnerability in war. Sexual violence against men, in contrast, exposes the vulnerability of the penis and thus represents a deeper security threat. Fundamentally, preserving the integrity and power of the phallus is critical to the security and integrity of phallocentric masculinity and thus to maintaining a systemic stability that is crucial in situations of war and armed conflict.

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